[HN Gopher] An English castle became a stork magnet
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An English castle became a stork magnet
Author : ohjeez
Score : 65 points
Date : 2024-11-24 23:31 UTC (8 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bbc.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
| ajuc wrote:
| In Polish countryside pretty much every village has several
| frames for storks to build their nests on. People build them on
| their roofs or on utility poles, and some utility companies do
| that too. It's best to build it a meter or more over the base to
| protect the nest from predators and electricity.
|
| http://dbajobociany.pl/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/naprawa-gn...
|
| https://e-magazyny.pl/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/bocian-slup...
|
| https://ipla.pluscdn.pl/dituel/cp/wo/wo139es6nx2b9jxcrg8a521...
|
| Also I've never seen a stork feeding in a swamp as they wrote in
| this article, but I've seen plenty of times storks walking behind
| a tractor plowing a field. They wait for the farmer to dig up the
| ground and eat the larva of insects uncovered by the tractors.
|
| They also catch frogs and mice on regular fields. Don't need to
| be a bog. That's probably why farmers love them.
| rob74 wrote:
| > _They also catch frogs and mice on regular fields. Don 't
| need to be a bog. That's probably why farmers love them._
|
| Right you are, but still, the natural habitat which they are
| adapted to with their long legs, beak and neck is wetlands. Of
| course, if they can find plenty of food in a freshly ploughed
| field, they will take that too, but so will many other birds
| (crows etc.).
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| I think farmers love them because of their association with
| peace and prosperity.
|
| Compare to the idea that sparrows in a barn are good luck -- I
| think the causation is the other way around: if you are
| prosperous enough that you can be feeding your horses better
| than bare subsistence, there will be undigested grains in their
| manure, and sparrows come live in your barn.
|
| Similarly, storks, being near the top of their food chain and
| migratory, probably prefer to nest in villages when there are
| large* numbers of people plowing regularly, but prefer
| unpopulated swamps when war or other disturbance has
| significantly reduced the local agricultural activity?
|
| Lagniappe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oCoVXcZ59Q (chorus:
| "Stork on the roof / Peace on Earth")
|
| * just like autism causes vaccines, babies bring the storks?
| Sharlin wrote:
| Well, the Chinese found out a _very_ hard way that with
| sparrows, the causation definitely goes the other way too!
| fsckboy wrote:
| > _undigested grains in their manure, and sparrows come live
| in your barn_
|
| are you aware that sparrows eat bugs, and farms have bugs?
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| Yes*. What bugs don't explain would be the difference
| between "unlucky" and "lucky". We have horses on different
| rations in our barn, and as far as I can tell, they all
| attract about the same number of bugs, but the sparrows
| tend to hang out way more with the ones on richer rations
| than they do with the ones on leaner.
|
| * eg https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41215084 (and I'm
| also aware that sparrows in winter appreciate half a
| kilowatt of heat per large animal, which is also
| independent of ration)
| frereubu wrote:
| This is a great film about the Knepp rewilding project -
| https://www.wildingmovie.com/ - which this article is about. I
| found it very inspiring.
|
| There are also a couple of books:
|
| https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/wilding-the-return-of-nature...
|
| https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-book-of-wilding-a-practi...
|
| And if anyone lives nearby (Sussex, UK) and wants to get involved
| in something like this, the Sussex Wildlife Trust are almost
| always looking for volunteers:
| https://sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/get-involved/volunteer Once
| you get into volunteering for SWT you'll hear about opportunities
| to volunteer on lots of other projects like Weald to Waves -
| https://www.wealdtowaves.co.uk/ - and Knepp.
| MrMcCall wrote:
| That that movie is by Isabella Tree is such a great example of
| nominative determinism.
|
| And she was adopted by aristocrats! So aristocrates _have_ done
| something selfless and generous in their lives, I 'd've never
| guessed. Good on `em.
|
| Snark aside, her mother, Lady Anne Tree is evidently a very
| fine human being who understood that her being born into wealth
| gave her the opportunity (or, perhaps, even, responsibility) to
| help others, which she did, apparently magnificently.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Anne_Tree
|
| Once one's heart is opened to the joy of helping others, there
| is no end to the creative, excellent endeavors we can
| undertake.
| itronitron wrote:
| So if the castle is attracting breeding pairs of storks, does
| that also make it a chick magnet?
| imawakegnxoxo wrote:
| Thus, it follows that the polar opposite of a castle is a baby
| bird
|
| Qed
| MrMcCall wrote:
| Thus facilitating the chick magnet -> chick factory pipeline,
| which really boils down to just being a regular fucking
| pipeline.
| zabil wrote:
| I visit Knepp a few times a year. There's a great circular loop
| you can walk, and I've seen plenty of trees with stork nests--an
| amazing sight to see firsthand.
| spiderfarmer wrote:
| I'm in a rural area of The Netherlands (for as far as there's
| anything rural here), and storks wreak absolute havoc on the
| meadow birds, to the point where they are disappearing. Storks
| are intelligent menaces and absolutely ruthless.
| MKoberger wrote:
| This story is such a cool example of how rewilding can really
| work. Turning the land from intensive farming into a more natural
| space gave the storks exactly what they needed to thrive--and
| it's amazing to see them breeding there for the first time in
| centuries!
|
| It makes me wonder what other places could do if they rethought
| how land is used. Projects like this don't just help wildlife but
| also bring life and energy back to these areas. Plus, it's such a
| great blend of preserving history and building something new for
| the future. Would love to see more efforts like this popping up
| around the world.
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